1. Follow an issue, familiarize yourself with the key players, facts, positions, arguments and counter-arguments, politics and policies.
2. Analyze the information you've gathered.
3. Decide where you stand on the issue.
   With whom do you agree? Disagree? Is there an angle that has been missed? What do you have to add to the discussion/debate? Personal experience? Observations?
   The end result of this decision-making process should be a strong one sentence thesis statement, which will appear in the final paragraph of your piece.
4. The Lead. Even an opinion piece requires a lead. It should resemble the lead of a soft news story. (See: Soft News Leads in How to Write a News Article). Include a variation of your thesis statement toward the end of the lead. This will signal to the reader where you are going with the piece, and help them follow your argument through to its conclusion.
5. The Body. The body of an opinion piece also bears a resemblance to a soft news story. Incorporate the 5 Ws into the body of your text. REMEMBER: in an opinion piece each of the relevant facts needs to be examined and interpreted through the lens of your thesis statement.
6. The Conclusion. This is your coup de grāce. Succinctly summarize the argument you have made, ending with your thesis statement.

Sample Opinion Piece: Lead

"THORNBURY, POPULATION 13,000", says the sign at the entrance of Thornbury, Ontario, a "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" dot on the map.

It's a perfect story book town: only one set of traffic lights, a main street where you can say hello to any of the friendly, talkative people, lots of sleepy trees and a beautiful bay.

One thing a person from the city would notice instantly, aside from the abundance of apple trees and my town's obsession with fish, is the fact that people of different races, other that white, stand out like flashing lights in a dark sky.

Sample Opinion Piece: Body

See, the thing with Thornbury is the percentage of white people is roughly 95 per cent. Don't get me wrong; in principle, there's nothing wrong with that. I'm just stating the facts.

Given that my mother is Korean and my father is Vietnamese, however, I really stood out in Thornbury.

For someone so physically and culturally distinctive, you may think that a small town would be terrible to live in. But, for me, the experience was the total opposite.

I never acknowledged my racial difference because no one else did. The only times I felt slightly out of place or uncomfortable was during discussions about different cultures at school. I'd always have this feeling that everyone was thinking about me and looking at me, wondering if I lived like the people we were discussing or not.

To make myself feel better, I just thought of it as flattery. As their only real life subject, they could feel free to ask me questions. In my experience, being a minority is only a negative thing if you allow it to be. I didn't try to be someone I wasn't, so my race never did matter.

Many people have blamed a lot of their problems on racism, stereotypes, and discrimination. Unfortunately, there are times when that is the reason. In some cases, however, people make it into a reason. They become so obsessed with the thought that anyone who is 'this' or 'that' is the problem.

I have three words for them, just drop it. Stop making more problems, we already have enough. Sometimes the world would be better off colour blind.

At times, I have been called a 'banana,' yellow on the outside and white on the inside. This basically means I act 'white', but am Oriental.

Maybe I am, but that would be normal considering where I have lived most of my life. If I had had Oriental friends maybe I would be called a 'lemon,' who knows? And who cares?

Sample Opinion Piece: Conclusion

Although I was a minority in Thornbury, I never focused on my skin, but rather on my heart. So did most people in my small town and because they never dwelled on me being different, that allowed me to concentrate on what's important, the real me.